


Over the Hills and Far Away

by silveryink



Series: The Tales of Lee Scoresby [2]
Category: His Dark Materials (TV)
Genre: Angst, Episode 5: The Lost Boy Spoilers, Gen, Minor Violence, Rated T for the violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-03
Updated: 2019-12-03
Packaged: 2021-02-26 07:34:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21659890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silveryink/pseuds/silveryink
Summary: In the middle of the night, the Tartars ambushed the gyptian camp, and another child was taken. The fight of Bolvangar starts here.
Series: The Tales of Lee Scoresby [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1572472
Comments: 6
Kudos: 107





	Over the Hills and Far Away

**Author's Note:**

> I made myself sad after seeing [this post](https://silveryinkystar.tumblr.com/post/189452230552/letascamander-so-many-of-the-adults-are-going-to) and this was the result.  
> Title from The Amber Spyglass  
> Hope you all enjoy!

It had all happened in the dark. The gyptians had retreated into their tents after young Billy Costa’s funeral, exhausted from the travel and the day’s emotions. Lyra, unsure of what to do without intruding into the Costas’ grief, hovered outside in front of the pyre for all of five seconds before Lee offered to share his tent with her.

Lee couldn’t exactly blame the kid. While she’d been the one to return Billy to his family, she probably felt out of place in their sorrow, as much as he did. She may have known them for longer than the three days Lee had joined their procession, and the Costas may love her, but she understood the need to offer them privacy. It was probably for the best that Lee, as a non-gyptian adult, to be able to offer her comfort without being brushed off (however unintentionally) by a grieving gyptian family.

And so, the Tartars came in the middle of the night. Lee woke up to startled shouts and the assembly of gyptians outside his tent. He shot upright, with Hester alert beside him for any sign of danger. He looked over to Lyra’s side and frowned – it was empty, but he supposed she must have gone outside to see what was happening. Pulling on his furs hastily, he stumbled out of the tent flap, narrowly missing an arrow aimed at him.

He cursed and ran into the fray, even as a roar told him that Iorek was also fighting. A group of men with wolf-dæmons had attacked the camp. Just as one pulled back his arm with the string of his bow, Lee lunged at him, shoving him to the ground with all his weight. The man let go of the arrow, which whizzed past Lee and lodged itself in the neck of one of his fellow attackers. Lee wasted no time, knocking him out with a single blow. An arrow – this time from the gyptians – found its mark in the Tartar. His wolf-dæmon disappeared in a wisp of golden light.

Lee got to his feet, pulling up the fallen man’s bow and quiver. He’d never tried archery before, but he’d left his weapons in the tent.

“Lee, behind you!”

Lee abandoned his efforts in getting an arrow out of the quiver and spun around, lashing out with the bow. With some level of luck, the string caught around the man’s neck. Lee pulled back sharply, and the string snapped free, effectively slicing his neck. Blood splattered across the snow as the man fell, pooling around him. Lee swore once more and put the man out of his misery before looking around.

It hadn’t taken long for the conflict to end, surprisingly. Lee wondered how exactly a small group of unprepared gyptians had managed to defeat a group of Tartars from the Sibirsk regiment, but-

Wait.

Lee ran for his tent, pulling out his flashlight from his kit-bag and lighting it. He swept it across the tent once.

“Has anyone seen Lyra?”

A few of the gyptians shook their heads, and dread trickled down Lee’s spine like ice. A few more anbaric lamps joined the bright beam from his flashlight, illuminating the area enough for him to see everyone. “Lyra!” he called. No response.

He spotted the gyptian king and shouted to get his attention. “Lord Faa, have you seen Lyra?”

Some of the desperation he felt must have reflected in his expression, for John Faa laid a reassuring hand on his shoulder for a moment before suggesting that he ask Ma Costa. Her response was that of concern, since she hadn’t seen Lyra since the funeral. In a community of gyptians who treasured children (landlopers and all), she had had no reason to think that Lyra would be in any sort of danger.

Lee decided not to trouble her any longer and searched the entire camp for the girl. Twice. Hester kept up with him, occasionally stopping to ask some of the dæmons whether they’d seen her, each time with a no. By the time Lee returned to the clearing, he was incredibly out of breath and (not that he would admit it) terrified for Lyra.

John Faa didn’t wait for his announcement that he couldn’t find the kid, and promptly shouted for the camp to get ready at once. Iorek padded up silently, just behind Lee, who skidded to a halt and bent over double as he tried to regain his breath.

Struggling to get the question out, Lee asked Iorek whether he’d seen Lyra anywhere, which also produced an answer in negative.

The king once more moved to assure him that they would hasten to Bolvangar to find Lyra, but Lee couldn’t hear him over the sound of his heart pounding and ears ringing. He’d had _one_ job, to protect the kid who’d been sleeping a foot away from him in his tent. How had he managed to miss her getting kidnapped? He breathed slowly and deliberately for a minute, tuning out everything else, and when he was sure he wouldn’t panic, straightened.

“Lord Faa, I know we’ve been making steady progress for Bolvangar, but we just found out exactly what they’re doing up there to them kids. I don’t want her to be there longer than she has to be, not one second.”

Lord Faa nodded. Lee heard the soft padding of feet behind him.

“What’s going on?” Ma Costa asked softly.

“Lyra’s missing,” Lee said. “I’ve been ‘round the camp twice now, no sign of her.”

“You think she was taken by the Tartars.” It wasn’t a question.

“M’lady, that’s the only explanation that makes sense. Where else is she going to run off to in the middle of the North? There’s nothing around here for miles, she can’t have gone alone.”

She turned a sharp gaze to him. “Mr. Scoresby, how fast can you get your balloon up?”

The question, so unexpected when he’d thought she’d accuse him of carelessness, was enough to throw him off. “I – I suppose that would depend on how soon I can find a vent. After that, an hour will do.”

John Faa stepped back and barked an order for some of the older gyptians who’d campaigned in the area to look for some vents that lay along their route. “These are our fastest runners,” he assured Lee. “They will return with the location soon enough.”

“Good,” Ma Costa said brusquely, which snapped Lee back into action. He wondered whether her demeanour was a front or whether it was a genuine reaction to finding a task that sounded achievable that would actually help them reach Bolvangar soon.

“Once they do, Mr. Scoresby, I want you to fill your balloon up with gas and fly ahead of us. If you do reach Bolvangar before the rest of us, which is likely, then tear the place down if you must and find Lyra. We shall take care of the other children when we catch up.”

The dæmon of the witch they’d consulted with flew over to them. “I shall fly ahead as well.” Nobody objected to this.

Lee nodded and sprinted up to his balloon, checking on the mechanism and strapping everything firmly to the sled. “Iorek!” he shouted. “I could use you up here.”

The old bear growled and loped over to him. “We all will find the girl,” he promised.

“I know.” For a moment, Lee allowed himself to give voice to his rising distress that he’d managed to keep under wraps. “You saw that poor kid, Iorek. You know as well as the rest of us what those – those _monsters_ do to the children they take. What if we’re too late? What if-”

“We won’t be late,” Iorek said gruffly. “Or have you forgotten how to fly?”

“I’m being serious, the Station is obviously going to be well-protected! Hell, if I ain’t careful, they’ll probably shoot down the balloon before we get a chance to find Lyra.”

Iorek only growled in reply. Lee bit back a few more choice words of frustration and sighed. Hester nudged his foot slightly, ears twitching and lying flat against her back.

“Then we have to leave now, Lee,” she said softly.

“Yeah,” he said in a slightly choked voice. He cleared his throat and tried to force some jovialness into his voice. “C’mon, Iorek. It’s you, me and Hester. Just like the old times.”

Iorek grunted but mercifully didn’t grace them with a dry comment as he otherwise might have. Lee realised that he was wringing his hat and immediately put it back on, catching Ma Costa’s look. He nodded at her in thanks as she stood, backlit by the sunrise and the gyptians in action.

She nodded back, and Lee found that he could read the subtext in the set of her jaw perfectly, for it was a perfect reflection of his own determination, his worry and fear and hope that they would get her back.

It was time.


End file.
